Textile artist and animal lover

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Biscuit

I love a good bit of word play. It’s why I have all the time in the world for the rash of designer dogs – aka mongrels – that has spread across the canine world, and why, when I met my first, and so far only, jug, I was all for kidnapping it and forgetting to send out a ransom note. Jugs are not only of the milk carrying variety these days. Perhaps you have yet to run into a Jack Russell + Pug cross. They are Pun personified – well, this one was, with his longer Russell snout and puggly curled tail, he really was the closest thing to a cow creamer that you’ll find outside the pages of Jeeves and Worcester. Too, too divine.

And so to Biscuit, whose name, as my friend pointed out, is a pun, hence the opening ramble. You see, clarity comes to those who wait. Well – perhaps not clarity … but cute cat pictures, and those never fail to find their audience online

That’s Biscuit (Biskit), or Biskitty as he is sometimes known, Biskitty, Bis-Kitty. And I think that was about the number of times it had to be explained to me before I got the pun, but then, I am absolutely hopeless at getting puns – maybe that’s why I hold them so dear when they finally make themselves known.

So, to Biscuit – prowling through the undergrowth, desporting himself amongst the cat nip, and staring, wide-eyed and colourful-eyed out of the screen – and the frankly ludicrous suggestion from my friend that maybe I could take the face from one picture, and the ears from another.

And yet, and yet, the more I looked into those hypnotic eyes, the more I found myself wondering if it might be worth a go.

I think it was.

First there’s the Elizabeth Taylor/Cleopatra shot: And then there’s some background work: where does Biscuit come from, where does he go to, how does he really feel about his relationship with catnip, that sort of thing. Oh, and a little fur filling in too …

And then the eyes – the eyes that started off the whole thing.

They took some time, and lots of welly – it’s not easy getting a needle through that many layers of stitching, but my thimble survived.

Night fell.

Next day, the weather changed completely. Looking at the photographs, I think the sun may have come out, which is, of course, always a possibility in England in the Summer months. As a result, all my photos from now on, are of an entirely different portrait. From this to this:

Then it was time for some Liberty print, some whiskers, and we’re done:Oh – and here’s evidence of the Frankenstein moment, the stitch-up of photograph and pencilled in ears. Though arguably, I suppose, the one in front is the more stitched of the two.

And now for the pièce de résistance, Biscuit with Biscuit. The great reveal. You can imagine how excited he was, to find himself recreated in fabric and thread.